The Thai Navy seized two tiger carcasses and 45 pangolins, and arrested eight traffickers who had planned to smuggle the animals across the Mekong River into Laos, TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, said today.

“Navy officers followed two cars carrying the traffickers in Ponpang village in the Rattana Wapi district of Nongkai Province on April 26, and made the arrests as they were attempting to transfer the slaughtered tigers and live pangolins to a boat,” TRAFFIC said in a statement accompanying photos released to the media.
Eight people were arrested including a Vietnamese woman and her Thai husband. Several others in the boat fled upon sighting the navy officers.

Tigers Chopped in Half

The two tiger carcasses, chopped in half, and the 45 pangolins, two of which were dead, were found inside the two cars, the statement added.The Navy and Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division have sent the tiger carcasses to Thailand’s Department of National Parks for DNA testing.”TRAFFIC lauds the Thai authorities for carrying out these DNA tests. Determining the origin of these tigers is crucial if authorities hope to end this tragic trade,” said TRAFFIC Southeast Asia’s Acting Director Chris R. Shepherd.